Are you Super? Will you Submit

The local gov­ern­ment com­mis­sion has pro­posed a reor­gan­i­sa­tion of the Welling­ton region, which you can read more about over on the local gov­ern­ment com­mis­sion site. The region­al coun­cil is split over the pro­pos­al. Per­haps more impor­tant­ly, accord­ing to Stuff, only 26% of Welling­to­ni­ans are in favour of the pro­pos­al. We’re not tak­ing a side here […]

Nga Manu Nature Reserve (Waikanae)

Yep, its not food.  But I was seri­ous­ly impressed with this place in our back yard that I had no clue exist­ed. Nga Manu is the largest remain­ing rem­nant of coastal low­land swamp for­est on the Kapi­ti Coast, and was estab­lished as a reserve in 1974.  It has devel­oped over the years to the well laid […]

Putting them away with JK: We attend an Event at Tuatara’s new brewery

It’s 9:50am and the glit­terati of Para­pa­rau­mu are itch­ing to get they drank on. Out­side the brand-new Tuatara Brrry (or Brew­ery, as it’s known on paper), they hud­dle under the awning to escape a rain that nev­er falls, hug­ging the out­er wall of the benight­ed edi­fice — hop­ing, per­haps, to osmose their way to dou­ble-vision. […]

Plenty to wine about

There comes a time in every­one’s life when they feel the need to leave Welling­ton, even if it’s just for one day. No real­ly, it hap­pens! And a par­tic­u­lar­ly good day to get out of town, if you don’t like the colour green, or pota­toes, or Gui­ness or drunk­en fake-Irish louts, would be this Sat­ur­day. So where to go to get away? How about a wine fes­ti­val — after we all know, that wine drinkers are a bet­ter class of peo­ple than beer drinkers — some­where out of town but still near­by?

Well it just so hap­pens that March 17 is your lucky day, with not one but two fes­ti­vals tak­ing place near­by. There’s the Wairara­pa Wines Har­vest Fes­ti­val in Glad­stone (as well as the Inter­na­tion­al Bal­loon Fies­ta and the day before Round the Vines, and also the Great Welling­ton Wine and Food Fes­ti­val in Paekakari­ki. So how do you choose which one to go to when they both cost $25 for an entrance fee? Take our quiz to find out.

The Southward Car Museum

Look­ing for some­thing to do with all these loooong, sun­ny days we’re hav­ing? Let me rec­om­mend a trip to the South­ward Car Muse­um, just north of Para­pa­rau­mu.

Dri­ving into the carpark you feel like you’ve spent back in time — to the 1960s. The build­ing is fan­tas­tic, a large con­crete bunker. The grounds are care­ful­ly man­i­cured, with beds of marigolds. Take your old Tup­per­ware pic­nic set and relive a sim­pler time.

Walk­ing in, there is a 1960s Fer­rari on a rotat­ing plinthe, and a gor­geous Mer­cedes sports car. You can’t help but play “which car would you take home” — except by the time you leave it is “which dozen cars, planes, and bikes would you take home”.

Entry is $10 for adults, $3 for chil­dren (5–15), and pre-school­ers are free.

Te Horo’s Hydeaway!

I know a dark seclud­ed place A place where no one knows your face A glass of wine a fast embrace It’s called…Te Horo’s Hydeaway…CAFE (Apolo­gies to Adler & Ross.) About 50 min­utes dri­ve North of Wellingon on State High­way 1, is the turnoff to Te Horo beach. On the cor­ner on your left, is […]